Iran Exercises Targeting UAVs with Hawk Missiles
News number: 9107119068 21:04 | 2012-11-13
http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=9107119068

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian air defense units exercised targeting Unmanned Aerial
Vehicles (UAVs) with anti-aircraft Hawk missiles during the second of
massive military drills underway in the Eastern parts of the country.

The Air Defense units of the Iranian Armed Forces started massive exercises,
codenamed "Modafe'an-e Aseman-e Velayat 4 (Defenders of Velayat Skies 4)",
on Monday.

On the second day of the exercises on Tuesday, the air defense units fired a
Hawk missile at a drone and destroyed it.

The missile was fired by a mobile air defense system on a missile-launching
vehicle.

Earlier today, Commander of Khatam ol-Anbia Air Defense Base Brigadier
General Farzad Esmayeeli announced that Iran has optimized the mid-range
Hawk air defense missiles and planned to test the home-made version of the
missile in today's drills.

"The Hawk missiles which are good for medium altitudes have been optimized
and indigenized in the country," Esmayeeli told reporters on the sidelines
of "Modafe'an-e Aseman-e Velayat 4 (Defenders of Velayat Skies 4)" air
defense drills.

He pointed to the Mersad air defense system which has been used in the
wargames, and said the mid-range system is "much more advanced and
different" from those systems tested in the air defense drills last year.

The Mersad system equipped with mid-range Hawk missile named 'Shahin' is
capable of tracing and targeting any enemy aircraft at 70 to 150km altitude
and is considered as a mid-altitude system among the country's missile
shields.